Yes, the so-called “fragrant pear” (香梨) types are cellaring pears. You don’t see them in the market until February. I grew some of them and they had a flesh similar to these Seuri Li pears which is why I thought that Seuri Li might need cellaring.
I have half a dozen in my basement fridge now, we’ll see what they are like next year!
Scott,
This is a very interesting pear. I’m looking for a very late season pear. Thank you for posting the details about this one. Can’t wait to read about how you rate the flavor.
Scott, I didn’t realize fragrant pears were cellared. I’m looking forward to hearing how yours turn out in a few months time.
I’m pretty sure Seuri Li is the one at the Repository that tasted exactly like Juicy Fruit gum and not like any other pear I’d tasted.
I wouldn’t call it exactly like juicy fruit but its similar … it does sound like the same pear.
The combination of the very late harvest (less diseases for me), long storage potential, and unusual flavor makes it a good one.
I pulled these out last weekend, some were already rotting. The ones not rotting had flesh turning tan. It wasn’t rot (yet), it was cell breakdown I think. They didn’t taste super great. So nix the idea of this being a storage pear!
My Shin-Li are doing much better for storage.
Scott, I don’t recall the Seuri Li at the Repository being bumpy or looking like that. I thought it looked more like Chojuro or Hosui than your pictures. Golden and uniformly russeted. Also don’t remember it being huge, although these fruits probably weren’t thinned. The Repository is growing the trees for wood rather than fruit.
Could be climate and growing conditions.
This is off of several years old memories, so I could be mistaken.
My scionwood was from Corvallis, PI 541904. They also have a PI 307497 which is listed as the same pear. In looking at the 541904 pictures on their website I think its the same pear as the one I grew (i.e. I don’t think there was a scion mix-up along the way), there are streaks of red which is pretty unusual in an asian pear and mine also had that, also they are a bit elongated which mine also were. The bumps are probably due to my growing conditions.
Hopefully I’ll find out which I have this fall. I wonder if I took any pictures of the tree in Corvallis.
I think got my scion from them, indirectly, too through the Home Orchard Society exchange. If so, it wasn’t labeled with PI number.
Regarding the name:
I highly suspect the actual name for this pear should be ‘Seu’. Why? First, “Li” is just Chinese for “pear” so “Seuri Li” would just mean “Seuri Pear”. Second “Ri” is Korean pronunciation for the Chinese “Li”! In other words “Seuri” would mean “Seu Pear”. This is funny cause if you call it the “Seuri Li pear” you’re actually calling it the “Seu pear pear pear”. hahaha… Probably what happened is this pear got a name mix up while passing between China, Korea and the US and ended up keeping both “Ri” and “Li” attached to its name by mistake.
That said, I had the opportunity to taste this pear a few years ago at a Home Orchard Society fall fruit show and I LOVED it. The flavor was complex and full. It had everything I like about Asian pear, plus way more. Unfortunately, although I had gotten scion wood, I had a bad batch of rootstock and almost all of my pear grafts failed due to rootstock death so I don’t yet have the pleasure of growing this pear. 
It’s pretty vigorous. I could give you some scionwood from mine, it may be a bit late this year, and I’ve already done some pruning, but there may still be some water sprouts up high that I didn’t reach with my casual while-I’m-passing-by-with-pruners-in-my-pocket style of pruning.
It’s on a tree with Hosui, Chojuro, and Korean Giant. Plus a couple just grafted last year. Of those, itt may be the most vigorous (although also on the South side grafted relatively high). It also blooms the earliest.
Thank you Jafar,
I think I should wait till next year before trying to graft any pears as I don’t have any rootstock available right now. I definitely appreciate the offer though!
I think you are onto something. I suspect it’s one kind of Su Li, in Chinese “酥梨”, a major pear type in China. The most famous one is from Dangshan, Anhui. In general, this kind of pear is very large, has elongated shape rather than typical round shape of Asian pear, and very juicy.
Seuri can be broken down as “Seu” (sounds same as Su) + “Ri”. Some Chinese mess up the sound of “r” with “l”. The pear certainly looks like Su Li, but I have never seen that kind of bumpy skin before.
LaiYang li has bumpy skin
Yeah, that looks like mine (I think), and what I saw at the repository.
So I don’t think the Li Mayer’s because Li is “pear” ship Seuri pear is Seuri Li
Like Ya Li and Ya pear
“Li” is transliterated from Chinese. “Ri” borrowed from Chinese to Korean and then transliterated from Korean to English and shouldn’t sound like an English “R”, but rather slightly rolled and intermediate between and “L” and “R”. Technically the pear should just be called the Seu pear. Seuri Li = Seu Pear Pear.
I purchased some scion wood and grafted what was supposed to be Seuri Asian Pear. Does this look like Seuri to those that have grown this variety? I just thought the browny/orangish hue of the graft’s leaves was a little strange.
I don’t have Seuri, but some baby Asian pear leaves are just straight up redish. I have some pictures of one such Dasui Li.
